India: States Make Controversial Employment Law Changes

On Sept. 7, the state government of Maharashtra changed the law governing employment in retail and commercial establishments to exempt those employing fewer than 10 persons from compliance, a change estimated to affect 350,000 establishments and several million employees.

In good news for small, new, and new-entrant foreign establishments, the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act of 2017 brought the law into conformity with present-day reality by, for instance, enabling women to work hours other than 7:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., allowing online business registration and filing of returns, and empowering the government to fix separate opening and closing hours for various establishments, such as malls and shopping complexes.

To boost a vibrant industrial sector that contributes 14.6 percent of the country’s GDP, Maharashtra earlier this year amended the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act to exempt businesses employing fewer than 50 people from statutory provisions preventing the employment of contract workers for work considered perennial in nature. The law previously applied to businesses employing 20 or more employees. Read More